Greece - Korina Miller [383]
Getting There & Away
BOAT
For information on ferries and high-speed boats from Rethymno, Island Hopping.
BUS
From the bus station ( 28310 22212; www.bus-service-crete-ktel.com; Igoumenou Gavriil), hourly buses run in summer to both Hania (€6.50, one hour) and Iraklio (€6.50, 1½ hours). Four daily buses serve Preveli (€4.10, 40 to 45 minutes), while seven go to Plakias (€4.10, one hour) – including an evening bus not usually listed on schedules, which goes via Preveli. Six buses a day serve Agia Galini (€5.60, 1½ hours), three serve Moni Arkadiou (€2.50, 30 minutes), and two go to both Anogia (€4.90, 50 minutes) and Omalos (€11.90, two hours). Daily buses serve Hora Sfakion via Vryses in summer. Low-season services are greatly reduced. Four buses serve Spili (€4, one hour).
Getting Around
Auto Moto Sport ( 28310 24858; www.automotosport.com.gr; Sofokli Venizelou 48) has car hire and a great variety of motorbikes and motorcycles. It’s a 10-minute walk from the Venetian harbour, eastwards along the coast road (Eleftheriou Venizelou) which becomes Sofokli Venizelou.
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MONI ARKADIOU ΜΟΝΗ ΑΡΚΑΔΙΟΥ
The 16th-century Moni Arkadiou (Arkadi; 28310 83136; admission €2; 9am-7pm Apr-Oct) has deep significance for Cretans. This monastery, situated in the hills 23km southeast of Rethymno, was the site of an act of mass suicidal defiance that captured European public attention.
In November 1866 massive Ottoman forces arrived to crush island-wide revolts. Hundreds of Cretan men, women and children fled their villages to find shelter at Arkadiou. However, far from being a safe haven, the monastery was soon besieged by 2000 Turkish soldiers. Rather than surrender, the Cretans set light to stored gunpowder kegs, killing everyone, Turks included; one small girl miraculously survived, and lived to a ripe old age in a village nearby. A bust of this woman and one of the abbot who lit the gunpowder stand outside the monastery.
Arkadiou’s most impressive building, its Venetian baroque church, has a striking facade marked by eight slender Corinthian columns and topped by an ornate triple-belled tower. Left of it is a small museum. The monastery’s former windmill outside it has a macabre ossuary, containing skulls and bones of the 1866 fighters.
From Rethymno, three daily buses go to Moni Arkadiou (€2.50, 30 minutes).
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ANOGIA ΑΝΩΓΕΙΑ
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Memorable Anogia presides over the so-called ‘Devil’s Triangle’ of macho mountain villages that occasionally get involved in armed stand-offs with the police (usually, over illicit cannibis cultivation, but sometimes just due to perceived affronts to local honour), much to the excitement of the Athenian media. Perched aside Mt Psiloritis, 37km southwest of Iraklio, Anogia’s known for its rebellious spirit and determination to express its undiluted Cretan character. Its famous 2000-guest weddings involve the entire village. It’s also known for its stirring music and has spawned many of Crete’s best known musicians.
Anogia’s kafeneia (coffee shops) on the main square are frequented by black-shirted moustachioed men, the older ones often wearing traditional dress. The women stay home or flog the traditional blankets and other crafts that hang all over the village’s shops. Indeed, Anogia is well known for its rugs and, if you know what you’re looking for, you can sometimes come away with a nice one.
During WWII Anogia was a centre of resistance, and suffered heavily for it. The Nazis massacred all the local men in retaliation for their role in sheltering Allied troops and aiding in the kidnap of General Kreipe.
Anogia nowadays lives quite comfortably from its sheep-husbandry industry and tourism, the latter bolstered as much by curious Greeks as by foreign travellers in search of rustic authenticity. Don’t refuse if a village man you don’t even know offers to pay for your coffee – it could be considered impolite.
Anogia clings to a hillside, with the textile shops in the lower half and most accommodation